A Look Back at THE TIMES

10 YEARS AGO
June 23, 2016
With a new 5-year referendum looming on the Turtle Lake School District horizon, results of a survey developed by the school were discussed at the most recent school board meeting. And although many of the answers were favorable, school administration felt a lot of misinformation is taking place after reading a number of the survey comments. Administrator Kent Kindschy told the board a survey will net approximately 10-12% response, which is the amount of responses the school got with this one. 170 residents responded, with nearly half of those residents age 65 or older. Only two responses were received from the 18 – 24 year old age group.
Parkview United Methodist Church, located at 236 Maple Street N. in Turtle Lake, will be saying good bye to their current pastor and welcoming their new one in the next couple of weeks. After four years of serving at Parkview, Pastor Keith Hewitt has been appointed to served at Salem United Methodist Church in Salem, Wisconsin. In July, Pastor Sudhama Ananda will begin serving Parkview.
The Turtle Lake Boy Scout Troop 59 successfully completed an adventurous 2-day canoe trip down the Namekagon River the weekend of June 18 -19. Many thanks to the scout families and special thanks to the adult leaders, Bill Muench, Mike Hermann, and Colleen Donhowe for generously donating most of Father’s Day to making this a fun and exciting trip.
39 students, grades 3 through 8, participated in the 2016 Turtle Lake Football Camp held June 13 – 15. Participants received instruction from high school and junior high coaches. Participating were Josh Bauer, Mike Cecka, Mike Selle, Kody Nitchey, Brandyn Ramelfanger, Evan Kamish, Toby Kahl, Bren- dan Strenke, Noah Torgerson, Joel Humphrey, Blake Thill, Maddux Allen, Nathan Kamish, Nick Kamish, Walter Thill, Daniel Maier, Drew Torgerson, Dalton Marlowe, Mason Quade, Xavier Dozois, Dakota Saal, Wyatt Nitchey, Caleb Blegen, Christian Torgerson, Walker Korish, Joey Molls, Jacob Snyder, Trenten Vilz, Dawson Nordquist, Brady Peterson, Ryan Strenke, Justin Rose, Ryan Shortess, Lane Hegg, Brady Jobe, Kylie Miller, Patrick McCready, David Torgerson and Brandon Wagner.
In just their second year of competition, the Turtle Lake Trap Team had two shooters place in conference categories, one shooter placed in two state league categories and one shooter placing third in his division at the state trap shooting competition. Travis Henck, Turtle Lake, was the top shooter in the conference in the male division and Kassy Coleman finished 6th in the female division.

20 YEARS AGO
June 22, 2006
The waited, and somewhat dreaded, downtown Turtle Lake renovation project began on the intersection of Maple Street and Logan Avenue Monday morning. Crews fro A-1 Excavating, Inc. began removing blacktop, burb and gutter and sidewalks before the digging began, to lay the new sewer pipe. Work will continue north on Maple Street and for the nest couple of months travel in the downtown area will be around detours, side streets and alleys.
After only two years of operation, the six-million dollar waste-water treatment plant, which was constructed with the ability to handle an 80% population growth in the next twenty years, is on the brink of sewer plant shutdown or DNR sewer ban due to violations. The built-in reserve capacity is gone due to tremendous flow increases by some of Turtle Lake’s bigger industries.
John Kolstad, or Papa John, as he is known, will perform with the Hot Club of East Lake at Paradise Landing in Balsam Lake on Friday and Saturday, June 23 – 24. Papa John Kolstad is a 1960 graduate of Turtle Lake High School and has been on the Minneapolis music scene for forty years.
Nick Kathrine displayed the cake he received for his 76th birthday party held at Turtle Lake Cenex Monday morning. Approximately 150 friends and relatives stopped in to share cake and memories with Nick.

30 YEARS AGO
June 20, 1996
As part of the Horticulture Unit in Mr. Dipprey’s Intro to Ag class, students filled the planters at the CESA 11 office in Turtle Lake. With the help of Mr. Paul Danniger, the plants were purchased for the project by CESA 11. Students were taught the names of the plants, their proper care, how to properly remove them from their pots, how to separate bedding plants and how to plant them.
Two Turtle Lake high school students, Anna Skrupky and Kelly Stary, are participating in an Honors Summber Camp at Carroll College in Waukesha this week with the High School State Honors Band. Also on the 1996 Honors Staff is Linda Becker, a Turtle Lake High School graduate who teaches at Merrill Junior High School.
The Laker golf season was a short one this year because of the late spring. The golfers were able to get on a course only once before the first team match. Earning the year’s end top spot on the team was senior Matt Torgerson, voted the Most Valuable Golfer. Freshman Mike Roof was voted the Most Improved Golfer.
The Turtle Lake Fire Department reaped a $9,000 windfall from an evening of world class wrestling at the St. Croix Casino on Friday, June 14. The Casino sponsored the first World Class Wrestling benefit, which brought four matches un the auspices of Larry Henning Wrestling Promotions. All benefits from the evening benefitted the Turtle Lake Fire Department.

40 YEARS AGO
June 12, 1986
What can we in northwest Wisconsin do to help the poorest country in the western hemishpere that is over 2,000 miles from us? That country happens to be Haiti and there is a group of people who think there is an answer to that question. A clothing dropoff point for those interested in the Turtle Lake area has been set up at the Turtle Lake Collision Center, off Hwy. 8 on Pine Street.
The 6th Annual Salad Luncheon and Style Show at Preschool Playhouse Child Care Center in Turtle Lake will be held Thursday, June 19 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Style Show will begin at 12:00 noon. The children enrolled at Preschool Playhouse this summer will model clothes from Pearson’s in Turtle Lake in the Style Show. Some of the boys and girls will model an outfit provided by their parents.
Wanda Clark, a junior at Turtle Lake High School, participated in the State Track and Field Meet in Madison on June 6 & 7. Wanda placed second in the 200m dash at the Sectional Meet in Amery on May 29 to qualify for the state tournament. At Madison she ran in the preliminary race on Friday and qualified for the finals. On Saturday she placed 8th in the finals.
Little Miss Turtle Lake, Anna Brenna, and her court, Hennie Leisz and Tiffany Washkuhn, will be turning over their titles to three other girls on Saturday, July 12 at the Inter County Fair. Letters have been sent to the girls who are eligible. Little Miss Turtle Lake is sponsored by the Turtle Lake Lioness Club.

50 YEARS AGO
June 17, 1976
Severe thunderstorms with hail in some areas and winds estimated in excess of 70 miles per hour swept across Wisconsin over the weekend. Three tornadoes touched down in Barron County shortly after 8:00 p.m. Saturday near Cumberland, Haugen and Rice Lake. Another was reported to have been seen Monday night by a Barron County patrolman near Cameron but it did not touch down.
Turtle Lake Cub Scouts Brian Nessen, David Becker and Kevin Dobbershutz won 2nd place in the Chippewa Valley Council’s Physical Fitness Competition held at Camp Phillips Sunday, June 13. The boys had previously qualified to enter the competition by capturing a second place rating at the Exporee held at Chippewa Falls.
Monday evening, June 14th, the Turtle Lake legion baseball team hosted the Barron Legion team on their home field, and defeated them 1-0. This was the third game of the legion baseball season and the Turtle Lake team stands with 2 wins and one loss. On June 7th they palayed and defeated Amery 5-3 and on June 10th they were defeated by Cumberland 5-0.
Horseshoe Lake Beach is now open. Lifeguards are on duty from 12:00 noon until 8:00 p.m. For the safety of swimmers and non-swimmers a list of rules have been established. Failure to obey the rules will result in appropriate action as described in State Statutes.